Week 5 of the 2018 growing season.
I have nea…

I have nearly finished planting up the first half of the beds in the plot, with 16 of the 34 beds sown. This week was another round of salad (spicy, lettuce, kale, tatsoi) and another dill. Unlike last year, the lettuce beds are really performing which is wonderful to see. I purposely bought a mixed lettuce variety packet, so I’ll be interested to see which varieties muscle their way through the best.

However; cucumbers. I planted them out but within 48 hours they had all seemingly perished. The biggest threat on the allotment site is looking like wind damage. In an ideal world I would have the resources to establish a 3x17m poly tunnel over the ground sheeting, but I think I will have to compromise with a reclaimed wind break of some kind. I am sowing another round this weekend to replace them, but sadly it will delay the first cucumber harvests by about 5 weeks or so.

On the plus side, the courgettes seem completely unaffected by the wind and are settling in really well. The cherry tomatoes are going in next week, so fingers crossed for them!